Showing results by narrator "Terry Gross" in All Categories

Political satirist Bill Maher on this edition of Fresh Air. He's just published When you ride ALONE you ride with bin Laden: What the Government Should Be Telling Us to Help Fight the War on Terrorism.

Hear former presidential hopeful and best selling author of Great Political Wit, Senator Bob Dole, talk about his new book, Great Presidential Wit (I Wish I was in the Book), a collection of funny anecdotes and quotations by or about American presidents.

Novelist Stephen King on this edition of Fresh Air. In 1999, the prolific and popular horror writer experienced something that could have come out of one of his books: he was struck by a car while walking along a rural road in Maine and nearly killed. Six operations and a long recovery followed. Five weeks after the accident, King started writing again and published the novella, The Plant over the Internet. His latest book is On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.

Hear Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, on this edition of Fresh Air. His show parodies, and is modeled after, The O'Reilly Factor. In fact, in a New Yorker review, Nancy Franklin writes, "Colbert resembles nobody more than he does Bill O'Reilly, and like O'Reilly, he conveys fake humility and easy rage toward inappropriate targets."

One of the founders of Apple Computers, Steven Jobs, talks about the future of computer technology on this edition of Fresh Air. Jobs led the development of the Macintosh computer and in 1985 he founded NeXT Computer. NeXT's mission is to develop customized software for businesses; two of their applications are OPENSTEP and NEXTSTEP.

Actor/comedian/screenwriter/playwright and novelist Steve Martin on this edition of Fresh Air. His new novel The Pleasure of My Company follows his best selling novella Shopgirl (which he is making into a new film). He wrote the play Picasso at The Lapin Agile and is the author of a collection of short stories, Cruel Shoes. Martin's screenwriting credits include L.A. Story, and Roxanne.

Singer Emmylou Harris and horror writer Peter Straub on this archive edition of Fresh Air.

Writer Michael Pollan. His book, The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World takes a look at four plants cultivated by humans: the apple, the tulip, potatoes and marijuana. Pollan demonstrates that plants and humans have developed a reciprocal, co-evolutionary relationship: Do we plant potatoes, or do potatoes seduce us into planting them? Pollan questions the assumption that we are in charge of our agriculture.

Writer David Rakoff on this archive edition of Fresh Air. He's a regular contributor to Outside, The New York Times Magazine, and public radio's This American Life. One of his peers, writer Paul Rudnick says of him, "Rakoff is a comic saint, an ideal mix of the crabby and the debonair." Rakoff has a new collection of essays, Fraud. He's also appearing in Amy & David Sedaris' new off-broadway show.

Historian Avi Shlaim and remembering Robert Ludlum on this edition of Fresh Air. Avi Shlaim is the author of the new book, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World. Shlaim's book is a revisionist interpretation of Isreal's policy toward the Arab world, based on newly released documents, and on interviews with policymakers and participants in events. Writer Robert Ludlum died yesterday of a heart attack, at age 73. His string of best sellers, such as The Bourne Identity, The Osterman Weekend, and The Icarus Agenda, established him as one of literature's most...

Novelist Jonathan Franzen on this edition of Fresh Air. His critically acclaimed new novel The Corrections is a saga.

Former US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Ron Suskind on this edition of Fresh Air. The two have collaborated on the new book, The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill. The book chronicles his nearly two years with the Bush administration.

Pulitzer Prize winner Tim Weiner and multi-ethnic author Greg Sarris on this archive edition of Fresh Air. Congress has decided to conduct a study of the role of the Central Intelligence Agency in the post-Cold War world. The agency suffered a shake-up following the discovery of the double agent Aldrich Ames. Weiner, who writes about the CIA for The New York Times, talks about what changes may take place in the agency as a result of the investigation.

Joey Ramone, the lead singer of the punk band the Ramones, died earlier this month. He had lymphoma. From their start in 1974, the Ramones combined fast, deafening guitar with precise drumming to create a hurricane of sound. Their songs had titles like "Beat on the Brat," "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment" and "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue." This edition of Fresh Air features an archive interview with Ramone from 1988.

Tammy Faye Messner and record executive Simon Cowell on this edition of Fresh Air. Tammy Faye Messner, along with her ex-husband Jim Bakker, built the Praise the Lord televangelist network. Record executive Simon Cowell is one of the judges on the talent show, American Idol, a spin-off of the show he co-created in Britian, Pop Idol.

Hear David Chase, the creator and executive producer of the HBO hit series The Sopranos, and film critic David Edelstein, on this edition of Fresh Air. The last gasp of The Sopranos is Sunday night, when the final episode of its seven-year run is broadcast. (Original Airdate: 6/22/2000) Then, David Edelstein reviews Ocean's 13.

TV Producer Lawrence O'Donnell on this edition of Fresh Air. He's the creator and producer of NBC's new series Mr. Sterling about a freshman senator on Capitol Hill. Previously O'Donnell was a writer and producer for the first two seasons of NBC's The West Wing. Before his television career, O'Donnell was in politics himself.

Writer Laura Hillenbrand and Random House editor Jonathan Karp on this edition of Fresh Air. Laura Hillenbrand is the author of the best selling book, Seabiscuit: An American Legend, about the horse who became a racetrack sensation in the 1930s.

Hear historian David W. Blight on this edition of Fresh Air. Blight is director of Yale University's Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, and a professor of American history. His new book A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Own Narratives of Emancipation is based on the first-hand accounts, recently uncovered, of Wallace Turnage, a teenage field hand on an Alabama plantation and John Washington, an urban slave in Virginia.

Singer and Songwriter Tom Waits on this edition of Fresh Air. Since the 1973 release of his first album, Closing Time, Waits has won over fans with his original songwriting and distinctive, gravely vocal style. One reviewer calls Waits "the Ultimate hobo boho, a Jack-in-the-box cum storyteller." Musicians including Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, and Rod Stewart have recorded covers of his songs.